High school in the UK

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High school in the UK

High school in the UK

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PaulineBlogger2017

It’s interesting to have a chance to teach English abroad because you get to see a completely different education system from the one you experienced. I am teaching in Belgium this year and I have noticed that there are some big differences.

In the UK, for example, as many of you will know, it is common to wear a school uniform. This is for egalitarian reasons: if students all wear the same thing then, in theory, they will feel less excluded as everyone looks the same. It is also nice to wear a school uniform because you don’t have to think about what to wear in the morning; you just put on your uniform and off you go. This saves a lot of time as you don’t have to worry about what to wear, what looks nice and what is fashionable.

Another difference I have noticed also concerns clothing: teachers dress in a more relaxed way in Belgium. They wear jeans and trainers for example. In my experience in the UK, teachers dress much more formally to work in a school. They wear similar things to the people who work in an office: shirt and tie for men; dresses, skirts, dark trousers and shirts for women. With this in mind, I bought a new pair of black shoes for my new job as a language assistant, assuming it would be inappropriate to wear my Converse to work. (I was wrong, haha!)

As I am working with older students (who are aged from 16 to 18) I have also noticed that they have a lot more subjects than I did at their age. In the UK, at 16 you enter ‘sixth form’ and you have to choose four subjects (five if you have very good grades). Some people like this, as it means you do not have to study subjects you don’t like. Others feel that it is too early to make such a big choice, because the subjects you choose at 16 will have an impact on what you can study at university. Me? I loved this system. I threw myself into my four favourite subjects and I am grateful for the experience I had.

Comments

In Japan, we have uniforms regardless of public or private. Japanese uniforms are nice . We can wear skirts for girls and pants for boys. Uniforms widely vary from schools. Especially girls' uniforms are good. They can wear checked skirts or skirts with many pleats and for tops, they put on ties or bows. Blazers are good but I like sailor-style uniforms more . I wear blazes, so I want to try on sailor-style uniforms sometime :)

In my country,Myanmar,high school students have to wear uniform.Students who are under 10 years old can wear skirts and pants.If a student becomes older than 10years,she needsto wear Myanmar dress and longgyi.Our uniform is white and green.Top is white and bottom is green.What a funny look :D All of the teachers have to wear Myanmar traditional dress just like students.It’s a really good idea to wear uniform.No need to give ttime to choosw what to wear.No more money is needed to buy fashionable clothes.What a great thingto weat uniform.I love wearing uniform.While I’m wearing uniform,I feel like I’m a part of my school.I represent them.That’s why I always care not doing anything bad things while I’m wearing school uniform.I don’t want to destroy my school ‘s image.

We must wear scarf and manto in our school.
It's worse. It's our uniform and there is no other way to change it.
We are only girls in school but when we take of our scarfs teachers says here is not England you must wear your scarf...... :'(
Our teachers are not good. But it's not about us.
And we can't have man teacher in girls school because of Islamic rules.
Ahhhhhhhhhhh............. :'(

We, in India, have uniforms. In my case, well, my uniform is really sweaty and annoying, for it is in the form of a traditional Indian wear, Salwar and Kameez. But we have tracks during Fridays for our sports practices. Most of my teachers are female, any they usually wear Salwar and Kameez or Saris. Male teachers have a formal attire, like coats and suits. I think it'd be better if we have skirts.

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Our Magazine is written by young people from the UK. Each year we select a new group of bloggers, from the British Council’s language assistants, who share their experiences of learning languages and living abroad. The views and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the LearnEnglish Teens team.